Good Old Days
by Bucky Smith
Summary: "Your story may not have a happy beginning, but that doesn't make you who you are. It is the rest of your story, who you choose to be." -the Soothsayer; from 2011's Kung Fu Panda 2


_"My mercy prevails over my wrath."_

-Rick Grimes; **from The Walking Dead (2017)**

* * *

 _Oh! Look at that! Takin' it like a champ!_

Her head was lowered, her damp black hair concealing her face. Her shoulders slumped and her hands balled tightly into fists on the base of her thighs. She was trying her best to keep her composure, but it was proving difficult. Impossible, really. There was no way in hell she'd be able to keep herself collected in the situation she found herself in. Correction — the situation her _family_ found themselves in. Being calm and collected was too hard. It took too much energy that she didn't have.

 _I just popped your skull so hard your eyeball just popped out...and it is gross as shit!_

Lilly raised her head just a fraction. If she kept her head lowered for just a second longer, she'd feel as if she were suffocating. Every breath she took felt like she were being stabbed; every exhale felt as if she had the breath knocked out of her. It was unpleasant, but not the _worst_ feeling she ever experienced. Lilly was currently experiencing a tidal wave of more intense emotions.* Emotions so powerful it felt as if she were drowning. Those emotions left her eyes stinging from the seemingly never ending flow of tears. It left her chest constricting painfully due to the raw sensation of guilt wracking her body. It left her feeling physically, emotionally, and mentally numb. The longer Lilly thought about it, the longer she allowed herself to _feel_ everything that came with it, the more unfeeling she became.

 _He just took one or six or seven for the team..._

Swallowing thickly, Lilly became aware of how tight her throat felt. She'd been trying to fight back the urge to _vocalize_ the pain she experienced just hours earlier. It was definitely hard, and part of her was still fighting the urge to do so. Taking a deep breath, Lilly felt that familiar stabbing pain. Another tidal wave of tears pooled around the bottoms of her eyes.

How were they going to walk away from this?

 _...so take a goddamn look..._

Closing her eyes, Lilly tried to figure something out. _Anything_. She needed a distraction from what was going on. But her mind was drawing a blank.

Opening her eyes, Lilly let her gaze go to the men surrounding them. Those men had all kinds of weapons on them. Guns and knives and...and baseball bats. How crazy was that? Of all the things a person could have, of all the things he could use to intimidate people, it was a damn _baseball_ _bat_? As if the dead coming back wasn't crazy enough.

All those men, though...they looked at Lilly and her friends pitifully, spitefully, indifferently. A lot of those men seemed desensitized to all the brutality that just occurred. Most of them hardly even _flinched_ when the first swing of the bat came down.* Lilly wasn't sure if she should be mildly impressed or incredibly disgusted.

When her gaze fell from the armed men, it went to her companions. The people she'd traveled with for God knows how long. Some were crying, others looked as if they were in some kind of dark trance.

Then there were the bodies. Laying motionless, but very well on display. No one touched them, no one even looked in their direction if it could be helped. It was too much.

It _hurt_ too much.

 _...Take a damn look!_

Their heads had been crushed in. They were unrecognizable. Beaten so severely it left an imprint in the minds of those present, _especially_ in the minds of their loved ones. No one could ever recover from something like that. It seemed impossible. Lilly could vividly remember the sounds the bat made when it came in contact with their skulls, both the first time and all the other times afterward. Lilly remembered their last words, and the sounds everyone _else_ made as the beatings continued. It was honestly uncalled for. Completely unnecessary, but it didn't matter, did it? Those _men_ were all about making a statement. Complete unadulterated brutality, that was how they kept control. That was how they got what they needed.

That was how Rick and his group found themselves in the woods. Defenseless. Outgunned. Outnumbered. _Hilariously_ outgunned and outnumbered.

Lilly could have justified the situation they were in for not being given the proper information, but they never really bothered with the important details. If it gave _them_ the chance to make a statement, why would important details matter? It was a simple threat that needed handling, but neither Rick nor the others were aware of just how dangerous it truly was. It was because of their irresponsibility, because of a twinge of arrogance, that Rick and his loved ones ended up where they were. In the woods surrounded by countless armed men. Two dead. But in all honesty, the trip that had been going on wasn't any kind of confrontation-battle mission. It was a simple trip to get some help.

Sadly, it wouldn't matter _what_ they were doing. The damage had been done and they had to pay the consequences.

That was why Lilly and her loved ones were on their knees, in such emotional and mental turmoil. That was why two of their loved ones had their heads bashed in. That was why, despite the world having already ended, it felt as if it were falling apart for a second time.

And that dreadful feeling was all thanks to one man.

 **o.o.o.o**

Lilly-Rose Molleja had been born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee, the youngest of four children to Venezuelan parents, Ana and Tony. The Molleja family wasn't the wealthiest in the neighborhood. In fact, money was hard to come by for the family. But Lilly-Rose could count on things working out in the end. Growing up with strict Catholic parents, Lilly-Rose, who preferred to be known as just _Lilly_ , believed that all good things that happened was because of God's will. So any time the Molleja family found themselves having gotten out of a particularly difficult hardship, she'd immediately think God had helped them out of it. But that all began to change. When news started to go around about a virus, one doctors and scientists couldn't figure out, it provoked nationwide - probably even _global_ \- panic. Lilly herself wasn't sure how to react to the news, but her parents were _convinced_ it was the end of times. Ana and Tony were pretty much correct about that.

Knoxville was hit pretty hard by the virus. Lilly could remember in great detail how her parents were close to having a heart attack with everything that was happening. In the beginning, when the virus first started hitting news stations, it didn't seem like a big deal. Everyone thought it was either some new strain of the flu or it was some weird undiscovered infection. People assumed doctors and scientists would be able to make vaccines for it by the end of the year, but that didn't happen. The virus was more complex than that. No one had the _slightest_ idea on where the virus came from or if it was a strain from an already known bug or not. People would get infected and would get sent to hospitals for examinations and testings. Death tolls started rising and people started to get nervous. Big cities got hit hard, and anyone who was left untouched by it all tried evacuating. Then everything started to _really_ get out of hand. Reporters started talking about the dead coming back to life. Graveyards, morgues, hospitals - any place known to have large groups of dead bodies or at least small numbers of them at a time had reports of them coming back to life and cannibalizing any unsuspecting victim.

Ana and Tony _tried_ to get their family out of the city, but when the rioting became too much, there was no way for them to really get out. Once the panicking got too much, violence broke out. Stores and houses were broken into, anything that _could_ be destroyed _was_ destroyed. Ana and Tony ended up having to keep their family in the city, much to their displeasure and mortification. Safe-zones were later put up, the military being left in charge. Not long after, communications went down and no one had any means of getting in-contact with the outside world. People went ballistic. The safe-zones failed, any survivors were left to fend for themselves in the new, violent world. Lilly and her family were put in a zone not far outside of Knoxville, but after it collapsed, she ended up getting separated from her parents. Lilly narrowly escaped with her eldest sister, Diana, and her older brother, Mateo. Diana wanted to go back and see if anyone else in their family made it out, but it was too chaotic. They _had_ to go.

The siblings learned just how dangerous it was outside the safe-zone. Lilly saw buildings in shambles. Windows broken, graffiti, some of them _burned_ to the ground. Cars were overturned, some might have their tires missing, some might have their entire engines gone. Garbage littered the ground, weeds and other plants started to grow over every nook and cranny. Run-ins with wild animals became frequent. The same could be said about encounters with the dead. Living corpses; shuffling through abandoned houses and buildings; stumbling through heavily wooded areas; making their way down every street corner in every city and town. Diana, Mateo, and Lilly encountered plenty of them in their journey. They also encountered plenty of the living, as well. The living - _actual_ living, breathing people - were more dangerous than the dead. Unlike the corpses, who only cared about feasting on the living; actual survivors were more dangerous. Survivors had the capability to think, to make strategies. They couldn't be trusted. Lilly tried convincing her siblings that maybe merging with other people could help them survive, but they wouldn't listen to her.

"We don't need other people," Diana would say. "We've got each other; that's good enough."

As much as Lilly wanted to believe her sister, she couldn't. Having to rely on each other was nice, but having more people was even _better_. With more people in a group, it could help with them getting more things done. The Molleja siblings weren't experienced hunters, they didn't know how to scavenge, they had zero survival instincts. While their experience in the new world was helping build up a basic understanding on how to live, they were still _very_ inexperienced. It took them _weeks_ to understand that to kill a corpse, they needed to land a blow to the head. And the longer they stayed on the road, the more frustrating it seemed to become. Lilly tried to convince her siblings as frequently as possible that having more people could help them, but Diana and Mateo refused to believe her. They didn't want to risk their safety, even if they didn't really know what to do. It wasn't until Diana died that things really started to change.

A corpse got to Diana before either sibling realized what was going on. She got bit on the upper arm, and while Mateo and Lilly tried to figure something out, they weren't successful in saving their sister. Once Diana was dead, Mateo shot her in the head. _That_ was when he agreed that other people would be necessary. They needed the numbers, surviving with just each other wasn't enough. The siblings were _barely_ scraping by on their own to begin with.

Their travels did get them far, passing briefly through North Carolina and into Georgia. Even when Diana was still alive, the siblings didn't have a particular destination in mind. As long as they had a place to sleep at night, they were OK. But it wasn't until after Diana's death that Mateo and Lilly stopped caring. They did what they could to survive, but in some ways it didn't feel like it. It felt as if they were just getting by.

It wasn't until their travels got them close to Atlanta that things made a drastic change.

* * *

 **(A/N):**

 **Sorry for the wait on this chapter, hopefully you guys at least tolerate it. If you find things that you think needs improvement, don't hesitate to tell me. Constructive criticism is always important!**

 **Disclaimer** **: I don't own TWD. That belongs to AMC and the dude who wrote the comics. All I own are my OCs and the subplots I put in.**

 **So how many of you guys saw that midseason finale this past Sunday? Definitely a lot of emotions going on. Let me know what you guys thought!**

 **Let me know what needs improvement, OK?**

 **Thanks.**

 **Bucky**


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